George D. Wise (politician) explained

George Douglas Wise
State1:Virginia
District1:3rd
Term Start1:March 4, 1891
Term End1:March 3, 1895
Predecessor1:Edmund Waddill, Jr.
Successor1:Tazewell Ellett
Term Start2:March 4, 1881
Term End2:April 10, 1890
Predecessor2:Joseph E. Johnston
Successor2:Edmund Waddill, Jr.
Office3:Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Term3:March 28, 1892  - March 3, 1895
Predecessor3:Roger Quarles Mills
Successor3:William Peters Hepburn
Office4:Chairman of the House Committee on Manufactures
Term4:March 4, 1887  - March 3, 1889
Predecessor4:John Holroyd Bagley, Jr.
Birth Date:June 4, 1831
Birth Place:Deep Creek, Accomack County, Virginia, U.S.
Death Place:Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Resting Place:Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Party:Democratic
Profession:lawyer
Alma Mater:Indiana University
College of William and Mary
Battles:American Civil War
Rank: Captain

George Douglas Wise (June 4, 1831  - February 4, 1908) was an American slave owner,[1] white supremacist, and U.S. Representative from Virginia. He was nephew of Henry Alexander Wise, and cousin of John Sergeant Wise and Richard Alsop Wise.

Biography

Wise was the son of Tully Robinson and Margaret Douglas Pettitt (Wise) Wise, who were double second cousins.[2] He was born at "Deep Creek," the Wise estate in Accomack County, near Onancock, Virginia, Wise was graduated from Indiana University at Bloomington.He studied law in the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.He was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Richmond, Virginia.He served as captain in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War.He was Commonwealth's attorney of the city of Richmond from 1870 to 1889, when he resigned.

Wise was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-seventh and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1881 – March 3, 1889).He served as chairman of the Committee on Manufactures (Forty-ninth Congress).Presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Fifty-first Congress and served from March 4, 1889, to April 10, 1890, when he was succeeded by Edmund Waddill, Jr., who contested his election.

Wise embraced ideas of a master race, once telling the House of Representatives that "if I could I would not have the mingling of Caucasian blood with that of any inferior race."[3] He referred to Chinese immigrants as "this indigestible mass . . . inferior in mental and moral qualities . . . a continual menace to the existence of republican institutions.”[4]

Wise was elected to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4, 1891  - March 3, 1895).He served as chairman of the committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce (Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses). Wise was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1901-1902.He died in Richmond, Virginia, February 4, 1908.He was interred in Hollywood Cemetery.

Electoral history

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Weil . Julie Zauzmer . Blanco . Adrian . Dominguez . Leo . More than 1,800 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation. . 2023-02-20 . Washington Post . en.
  2. Book: Wise, Jennings C. (Jennings Cropper) . Col. John Wise of England and Virginia (1617-1695); his ancestors and descendants . 1918 . [Richmond : The Bell book and stationery co. |others=University of California Libraries].
  3. 13 Cong. Rec Appendix 64
  4. 13 Cong. Rec Appendix 64